whinging poms

[wombat1138]

Misc. notes on Asian cultural trivia about pomegranates.

The British Medical Journal (the sentence footnoted to Munsterberg is somewhat contradicted/clarified by some of the other sources I've separately cited below, but I don't know whether the error originally arises from M. or from the BMJ's imperfect understanding; would have to find the book to determine that):

Along with the citrus and the peach, the pomegranate is one of the three blessed fruits [of Buddhism]. In Buddhist art the fruit represents the essence of favourable influences.[9] In Buddhist legend the demoness Hariti, who devoured children, was cured of her evil habit by the Buddha, who gave her a pomegranate to eat. She is depicted in Buddhist art holding a child. In Japan she is known as Kishimojin and is invoked by infertile women.[10]

In China the pomegranate is widely represented in ceramic art symbolising fertility, abundance, posterity, numerous and virtuous offspring, and a blessed future.[11] A picture of a ripe open pomegranate is a popular wedding present.

[9. Hall, J. Hall's illustrated dictionary of symbols in eastern and western art. London: John Murray; 1995.
10.Munsterberg, H. Dictionary of Chinese and Japanese art. New York: Hacker Art Books; 1981. p. 241.
11.Cooper, JC. An illustrated encyclopaedia of traditional symbols. London: Thames and Hudson; 1995. p. 134.]

PDF brochure from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore: the pomegranate is a symbol of growth in Asian art (examples? regional specificity?)

Food Culture in Japan by Michael Ashkenazi and Jeanne Jacob, via Google Books, pp 160-161:

Many foods are directly or indirectly associated with Buddhism. Primary among them is lotus root (renkon). The lotus plant grows in water and is not anchored to the ground. It reproduces vegetatively and brings forth a perfect blue or white flower with intense perfume. It is thus a major symbol for the Buddhist law. The eating of lotus root in Buddhist temples, aside from its aesthetic appearance, is thus an act of piety as well. Diametrically opposite is the pomegranate. A ferocious man-eating demon named Dakini had a thousand children whom she supplied with human meat. The Buddha trapped one of her offspring under his begging bowl. To secure the infant's release, Dakini promised to refrain from eating human flesh, and to serve as protectress of children. She is usually depicted holding a pomegranate, symbol of her thousand infants and of fecundity in general. However, as a consequence, many Japanese refuse to eat pomegranate, claiming the seeds taste like human flesh.

Discussion of the incorporation of Hindu/Buddhist religious elements throughout East Asia; Dakini and Hariti identified as different figures, not different names for the same one:

A sea-serpent worshipped by sailors is called Ryujin [in Japan], a Chinese equivalent of the Indian naga. Hariti and Dakini are also worshipped, the former as Kishimo-jin, and the latter by her original name.

[The ref to Ryuujin interests me, because of connections with the three sea-dragon princesses I compiled a long post about at some point. Benten is sometimes identified as a similar serpentine sea-goddess, of whom this site adds, "the Indian goddess of learning, Saraswati, has become Benten (literally, goddess of speech), with many shrines dedicated to her along sea coasts and beside lakes and ponds."]

Thangkas here of Dakini, Hariti, and Saraswati, as well as of Amaterasu and the Virgin of Guadelupe among others?

(I'll probably have to hunt down more info about Dakini's original Hindu nature-- frex, this site uses "dakini" as a relatively generic term for a type of demigoddess? In the meantime, Onmark notes that in Japan, Dakini has somewhat bifurcated into O-Inari and Daikoku, both rice-harvest deities.)


There seems to be a deep underlying sense of ambivalence about pomegranates' symbolism in Japan, based on the stuff so far, arising from different combinations of the same functional elements. There's the benevolent pomegranate-goddess who protects innocent human children in thanks for her own gift from Buddha, and the vicious one who murdered humans until dissuaded by Buddha's threat to (or at least captivity of) one of her own bloodthirsty children.

Comments

[redswordheart.livejournal.com]

"Spring is nearly over. The pomegranate trees are blossoming." Uh-huh.

That's very... interesting. Seems like a mixture of death and fertility.

[wombat1138.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there's something toxic about part of the pomegranate plant-- in the Greek myth of Persephone, she's abducted by the lord of the underworld; while being held captive, she eats a few pomegranate seeds, and as a result her grain-goddess mother (cf. Inari/Daikoku above) is unable to negotiate a permanent release. Winter is thus said to represent the block of months (one for every seed that was eaten) within each year that Persephone must remain in the underworld, during which her mother is in mourning, causing plants to wither and growth to cease. Yet although captive in the underworld, Persephone is its reluctant queen; although her mother is the eternal avatar of fertility, she herself is barren.

(At some point, I was messing around with a historical survey about Persephone in popular literature; in the original Greek myths, she's just picking flowers with her friends when suddenly the earth opens up and swallows her down. This was retained in the Victorian lyric poems that I found, but in all of the 20th-century children's books, the story is turned around to make it sound like the abduction is her fault for disobeying her mother and wandering off by herself. Yeah, there's probably a strong element of indoctrinating the kidlets to stay good and stay in sight, but it still creeps me out because there's still always a subcurrent of rape/paranoia-- Persephone was a naughty girl, so of *course* some strange man is going to snatch her up and carry her off to be his bride, and she'll never completely be able to win free of him, and it'll all be her fault for not listening to Mommy and for eventually needing to *eat*.)

Then again, maybe it is just that the juice is blood-red and the fruits are really complicated to eat, full of fractal nests of tannic bitterness and tart sugar, wrapped up inside a hard shell with dry membranes among the explosive little juice bombs with pits in the middle. (Drat. Now I'm craving a pomegranate. Luckily I think they're coming into season, so there should be some at the farmers' market this weekend.) The trees seem to be self-pollinating, which could further encourage the image of fertility; I'm seeing contradictory refs whether they retain their leaves in winter, which would encourage associations with immortality; but I still can't quite pin down why they have a cross-cultural link with death.

[jennifer3dtd.livejournal.com]

I've also found them complicated to eat. Sometime last year, I vaguely recall some radio personality saying a good way to take apart a pomegranate is to do so in a bowl of water. The details escape me, as I was drifting in and out of sleep during that radio show. (Plus, my memory sucks anyhow, heh.) However, a google search comes up with a lot of hits describing the "bowl of water" method, frex:

http://pomegranate-juice.info/how-to-eat-a-pomegranate/


I also vaguely recall the radio show person saying this method helps get the white (bitter) center out of the seeds, but I can't imagine how that'd work.

[wombat1138.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I've done that-- when you take them apart underwater, the juice squirts get absorbed by the water instead of getting all over you; also, as you separate the seedy bits from the white membraney bits, the seeds sink down to the bottom but the membranes float up, so you can skim those off and dump them before draining out the seeds in a colander. But usually I just pick at them out of a big dry bowl of pomegranate bits.

I was amazed to find out that some people carefully eat the red pulp from around each seed and then spit the seeds out, which makes for an incredible amount of work per calorie consumed. I just crunch them up seeds and all; imho the actual seeds aren't really bitter, just... crunchy and maybe slightly nutty in flavor.

The little snack annex at the local Target has raspberry-pomegranate smoothies that taste nice, but have disconcerting little bits of fiber that're the texture of wet cardboard, which is what I thought the first one was when it came up through the straw. I guess they must be associated with the pomegranate in some way? When making smoothies at home, I've had mixed results with trying to incorporate pomegranates; if the ice stays in little chunks, then the bits of seed just sorta mix in without being too noticeable, but otherwise they make for a really weird mouthfeel.